System for managing organizational emergencies and coordinating emergency responses

ABSTRACT

An emergency response system includes remote computing devices programmed via executable code instructions to broadcast an emergency alert to recipients, responsive to instructions received from administrators or emergency responders, the emergency alert including a response request permitting recipients to provide a binary positive or negative user status response, receive the responses from the recipients along with location information, send a map showing known recipient locations coded by corresponding response status to the administrators/responders, provide chat functionality between users during an emergency alert, provide social media functions including message exchange between users, and override the social media functions during an emergency alert so that social media messages cannot be exchanged.

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/720,601, filed Sep. 29, 2017, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/402,258, filed Sep. 30, 2016, which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to emergency response/management.

BACKGROUND

Existing systems for managing and responding to emergencies and otherextraordinary events suffer from a variety of problems, includingdisengaged users who fail to use or install an application and thereforedo not receive emergency alerts when sent and an inability to locate andcommunicate with those involved in the emergency.

Needs exist for improved systems and methods for managing and respondingto emergencies.

SUMMARY

It is to be understood that both the following summary and the detaileddescription are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to providefurther explanation of the invention as claimed. Neither the summary northe description that follows is intended to define or limit the scope ofthe invention to the particular features mentioned in the summary or inthe description. Rather, the scope of the invention is defined by theappended claims.

In certain embodiments, the disclosed embodiments may include one ormore of the features described herein.

An implementation of the present invention may be an enterprise mobileapp that allows organizations to collaborate, create social mediacommunities, and provide emergency communications, leveragingcommunication platforms such as email, websites, social media, anddigital signage, and integrating them in one powerful app for eachorganization's unique needs. Email blasts often go unread or end up inthe spam box. Finding content on websites is difficult andtime-consuming. Social media/networking platforms are unstructured andnot suitable for organizations wishing to keep information within theirgroup. And digital signage systems require users to be in front of thescreen to view content.

Organizations need a simple way to connect people, communicate relevantcontent to users, and leverage the power of mobility and social media tocollaborate within their community. A flexible and simple mobile appachieves these goals and benefits a wide variety of organizations. Forexample, government agencies and businesses can deliver rich mediacontent, including official news and announcements to their distributedworkforce. The app can provide mobile training or enable teams tocommunicate and collaborate around mission-critical processes.

Universities and K-12 schools can keep faculty, students and parentsinformed of news, alerts, and information. The app can be used to createsocial media groups designed for school, student or parent initiatives,promoting awareness and building community support.

Non-profits and associations can add value to members by creating socialmedia groups tailored to their brand, mission, or interest.

In an emergency, first responders need the ability to communicate whatis happening and account for people quickly. The app features a massemergency notification and accountability system that givesadministrators/first responders the ability to alert people via the appabout emergency conditions such as inclement weather, fire, publicsafety hazards or threats.

From their computer or smartphone, first responders can send multi-modemass communication alerts via text, email, and push notifications tousers to let them know what is happening and provide instructions aboutwhat to do. The app also lets administrators/first responders accountfor people via the app by requesting user status. Users simply check“ok” or “not ok.” A dashboard presentation gives first responders theability to assess users who have checked “ok”, “not ok” or who have notresponded. Using GPS within the app, first responders can view andlocate users who checked “not ok” or who have not responded, and thencontact them directly via email, phone or chat to send or provide aid.In addition to checking “ok” or “not ok” users may also communicatedirectly with responders by text, email, chat, or app push if they areable.

An implementation of the invention is a communication system and amethod for managing an extraordinary event. In the context of anorganization with a small to large number of members, the communicationsystem includes a server in wireless communication with a number of userdevices, each of which is associated with a member of the organization.Exemplary devices can include smart phones, desktops, tablets, and otherhandheld devices. During an extraordinary event, the organization can,via the server, mass communicate with the members via the devices. Forexample, the organization can broadcast to the devices an emergencymessage, along with an inquiry. The members, via their devices, can thenprovide a feedback to the inquiry. Based on the feedbacks received fromthe members, the organization learns about the status or location of themembers, and can then take specific action with respect to specificmembers.

In a specific implementation or embodiment of the invention, employeesof a government agency may be equipped with wireless devices. Thedevices may contain a mobile app that is in communication with a serveradministered by the agency. In an emergency, such as a fire or anelectrical outage at a particular section of a building where the agencyis located, the server may send out an emergency message to theemployees, giving them the latest information. The message can includean inquiry (e.g., “Are you ok?”). Further, individual employees canrespond via the mobile app (e.g., tapping graphical user interfaceelements labeled “ok” or “Not ok”). After collecting the responses, theserver can provide statistical data to an administrator to take followup action. For example, the server can identify one or more employeeswho are still in the building. The server and/or an admin user maycreate a chart or other visualization showing certain information suchas responses of users in certain locations and send the chart to firstresponders through the app or by email, etc.

Additionally, the server may provide the administrator with variousfunctionalities for sending additional information or instructions todevices associated with the one or more employees who are still in thebuilding. In some examples, the server can identify one or moreemployees that have not responded to the inquiry, and communicate withother employees to determine the status and/or location of the one ormore employees that have not responded to the inquiry.

Additional aspects of the invention include social media messaging andan override feature. The override feature, in one embodiment, overridesthe social media and/or other features of the mobile app during anextraordinary event. During the override, the server may send an inquiryto client devices, along with an instruction to display the emergencynotification on the user devices, regardless of the status of thedevice. Additionally, the override feature may restore the conventionalsocial media and/or other features of the mobile app once theextraordinary event is closed.

In some embodiments, the override feature can utilize specialnotifications to solicit feedback from the users. For example, theserver may cause user devices to play special ringtones or sounds,display graphical elements, vibrate, or otherwise indicate to the usersthe extraordinary nature of the message and inquiry.

In some implementations, social media functions may be integrated intothe application, allowing members to communicate with each otherregarding non-emergency matters (for example, pertaining to theorganization) and ensuring that members install and maintain the app andare familiar with it and its functionality, to maximize the number ofmembers who receive an emergency message when one is sent. Socialmedia/networking posts/communications may be threaded and date and timestamped. The social media environment may be restricted to the membersof the organization and may be used by the organization to pushnon-emergency information to members, such as job postings, corporateannouncements, with pictures and video, and to allow (or not allow)members to comment on and share the information, making for two-waycommunications that is more engaging to members and makes them morelikely to use the app. The social media/networking allows members toraise organization-specific concerns internally, and to reportsuspicious activity or other problems to raise awareness within theorganization and prompt action and crowdsource feedback and responses toassess the seriousness of a threat, receive assistance, etc. Forexample, the app may serve as an ever-present replacement for campus“blue phones” for reporting trouble. The organization may also use thesocial media/networking functions to periodically push and collaborateon training pieces, e.g. emergency preparedness, organization emergencypolicy, etc., so that users obtain and maintain a familiarity with andknowledge of this information.

A new emergency response system includes a first set of one or morecomputing devices programmed, via executable code instructions, to:broadcast a first emergency alert to a second set of one or morerecipient computing devices, responsive to instructions received fromone or more of a third set of administrative or responder computingdevices, the first emergency alert comprising information relating to anemergency and a response request, the response request permitting a userof each of the second set of one or more recipient computing devices toprovide a binary positive or negative user status response, to receivebinary positive or negative user status responses from the second set ofrecipient computing devices, and/or location information correspondingto each of the second set of recipient computing devices, to send a mapshowing known recipient computing device locations for the second set ofrecipient computing devices, coded by corresponding response status ofpositive, negative, or no response received, to the third set ofadministrative or responder computing devices, to broadcast a secondemergency alert to each of a fourth set of one or more relationshipcomputing devices, the second emergency alert comprising the informationrelating to the emergency and information pertaining to an associateduser of one or more of the second set of one or more recipient computingdevices including the associated user's status response or lack thereof,location information, and/or contact information, to send follow-upcommunications and/or queries to users of the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received, to utilize the receivedlocation information to identify positive status users of the second setof one or more recipient devices from which positive status responseswere received who are located closest to users of the second set of oneor more recipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received and querying them as to thestatus and/or location of the users of the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received, to send and receive socialmedia messages between the recipient computing devices and override theexchange of social media messages to broadcast the first emergency alertregardless of how the recipient computing devices are currently beingutilized, and to restore normal sending and receiving of social mediamessages only when an indication is broadcast that the emergency isover, to receive chat messages from the recipient computing devices, theadministrator or responder computing devices, and/or the relationshipcomputing devices and broadcast the chat messages to the recipientcomputing devices, the administrator or responder computing devices,and/or the relationship computing devices while the exchange of socialmedia messages is overridden, and to link two or more users of therecipient computing devices, the administrator or responder computingdevices, and/or the relationship computing devices, such that the linkedusers have shared access to social media messages associated with giventopics. Sending and receiving social media messages may includereceiving messages from the recipient computing devices and broadcastingthe messages to the recipient computing devices, the administrator orresponder computing devices, and/or the relationship computing devices,and receiving responses from the recipient computing devices, theadministrator or responder computing devices, and/or the relationshipcomputing devices to the messages and broadcasting the responses to therecipient computing devices, the administrator or responder computingdevices, and/or the relationship computing devices.

The system may also include the second set of one or more recipientcomputing devices, and each of the one or more recipient computingdevices of the second set may be programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive the first emergency alert display the responserequest, responsive to receiving the first emergency alert, such thatthe user thereof can provide a binary positive or negative user statusresponse by a single actuation, and to transmit location information forthe respective computing device and any user status response.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to provide summary statistics including number ofrecipient computing devices located within a given predeterminedgeographical area and/or number of recipient computing devices locatedwithin the given predetermined geographical area that have associated anegative user status response or no user status response. Thepredetermined geographical area may include a building, a property, acampus, an area including a building, property, and/or campus and acertain surrounding area, and/or a given predetermined radius around apoint.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to broadcast additional information pertaining to thefirst emergency alert to the second set of one or more recipientcomputing devices.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive updates to the binary positive or negative userstatus responses from the second set of recipient computing devices,and/or updates to the location information corresponding to each of thesecond set of recipient computing devices, and to update the displayedmap accordingly.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive a selected subset of the second set of one ormore recipient computing devices from a user of one of the third set ofone or more administrator or responder computing devices and to querythe subset as to the status and/or location of one or more of the usersof the second set of one or more recipient computing devices from whichno status response and/or negative status responses were received.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive one or more selected modes of transmission froma user of one of the third set of one or more administrator or respondercomputing devices and to broadcast the first and/or second emergencyalert in the selected modes, the selected modes comprising one or moreof email, SMS, and push notification.

The administrator or responder computing devices may be furtherprogrammed, via executable code instructions, to receive an instructionto suppress the response request from a user of one of the third set ofone or more administrator or responder computing devices and tobroadcast a third emergency alert to the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices, the third emergency alert includinginformation relating to a second emergency and not including a responserequest.

The recipient computing devices may be further programmed, viaexecutable code instructions, to vibrate, play a special ringtone orsound, and/or display graphical elements when the first emergency alertis broadcast and/or the exchange of social media messages is overridden,to indicate an extraordinary nature of the first emergency alert.

The summary statistics may include number and/or percentage of number ofrecipient computing devices from which a response has been received anda list of recipient computing devices from which a response has not beenreceived, and the administrative or responder computing devices may befurther programmed, via executable code instructions, to receive aselection of one or more recipient computing devices from the list anddisplay further information regarding the selected one or more recipientcomputing devices and/or their users and to initiate an email, chatmessage, or phone call to the selected one or more recipient computingdevices and/or their users.

The system may also include an organizational data repository containingidentity information regarding members of an organization, and thecomputing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive requests from unregistered computing devices toregister as recipient computing devices associated with recipient users,the requests including associated identity information, and to check theidentity information associated with the requests against the identityinformation in the organizational data repository regarding the membersof the organization, and to approve the requests where a match is found.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive a non-emergency message from one of theadministrative or responder computing devices and broadcast it to therecipient computing devices by email, SMS, and/or application pushnotification.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive requests to associate new relationshipcomputing devices with the recipient computing devices, and to carry outor deny the received requests.

The system may also include the third set of one or more administrativeor responder computing devices, and each of the one or moreadministrative or responder computing devices of the third set may beprogrammed, via executable code instructions, to retrieve and display adirectory of the second set of recipient computing devices and/or theirusers, to sort the directory by user status response, to displayinformation for individual computing devices and/or users from thedirectory based on selections received from a user thereof, and tocreate temporary subsets of the second set of recipient computingdevices based on received selections and transmit communications to allmembers of the temporary subsets simultaneously.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, responsive to requests from the third set ofadministrative or responder computing devices, to transmit contactinformation corresponding to selected recipient computing devices to therequesting administrative or responder computing devices.

The computing devices may be further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to track content of messages passing between recipientcomputing devices and to determine the types of content that are mostfrequently exchanged.

A non-transitory computer storage has new instructions for causing afirst set of one or more computing devices to determine, triage,follow-up and assist organizational members in an emergency by:broadcasting a first emergency alert to a second set of one or morerecipient computing devices, responsive to instructions received fromone or more of a third set of administrative or responder computingdevices, the first emergency alert including information relating to anemergency and a response request, the response request permitting a userof each of the second set of one or more recipient computing devices toprovide a binary positive or negative user status response, receivingbinary positive or negative user status responses from the second set ofrecipient computing devices, and/or location information correspondingto each of the second set of recipient computing devices, displaying amap showing known recipient computing device locations for the secondset of recipient computing devices, coded by corresponding responsestatus of positive, negative, or no response received, on the third setof administrative or responder computing devices, broadcasting a secondemergency alert to each of a fourth set of one or more relationshipcomputing devices, the second emergency alert including the informationrelating to the emergency and information pertaining to an associateduser of one or more of the second set of one or more recipient computingdevices including the associated user's status response or lack thereof,location information, and/or contact information, sending follow-upcommunications and/or queries to users of the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received, and utilizing the receivedlocation information to identify positive status users of the second setof one or more recipient devices from which positive status responseswere received who are located closest to users of the second set of oneor more recipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received and querying them as to thestatus and/or location of the users of the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received.

These and further and other objects and features of the invention areapparent in the disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing writtenspecification, with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a partof the specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments and, togetherwith the description, further serve to enable a person skilled in thepertinent art to make and use these embodiments and others that will beapparent to those skilled in the art. The invention will be moreparticularly described in conjunction with the following drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computingenvironment 100, in accordance with one or more implementations of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system programmed to manage organizationalemergencies, in accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating account actions associated with anorganizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating organizational emergency managementmethods, in accordance with one or more implementations of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating organizational emergency managementmethods, in accordance with one or more implementations of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating social media function override methodsassociated with an organizational emergency management system, inaccordance with one or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating organizational emergency managementmethods, in accordance with one or more implementations of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating directory actions associated with anorganizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating social media functions associated withan organizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a system architecture of anorganizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a UI wireframe for a landing page view of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a UI wireframe for a first level posts view of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a UI wireframe for a second level posts view of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 14A is a UI wireframe for an admin side alert screen of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 14B is a UI wireframe for an admin side alert in progress screen ofa mobile application for organizational emergency management, inaccordance with one or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a UI wireframe for a recipient side alert screen of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a user functionality table for a system for organizationalemergency management, in accordance with one or more implementations ofthe present invention.

FIG. 17 shows a create alert web page of an organizational emergencymanagement web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention.

FIG. 18 shows a create a tile web page of an organizational emergencymanagement web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention.

FIG. 19 shows a create a post web page of an organizational emergencymanagement web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention.

FIG. 20 shows an emergency chat function screen, in accordance with oneor more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 21 shows an admin side alert in progress screen of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention.

FIG. 22 shows a view mobile users web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention.

FIG. 23 shows a create mobile users web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention.

FIG. 24 shows an import user list web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention.

FIG. 25 shows a tile access management web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. what happens when you click onthe gear icon under options in Managing User Roles view

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system for managing organizational emergencies and coordinatingemergency responses will now be disclosed in terms of various exemplaryembodiments. This specification discloses one or more embodiments thatincorporate features of the invention. The embodiment(s) described, andreferences in the specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”,“an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodiment(s) describedmay include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Suchphrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. When aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an embodiment, persons skilled in the art may effectsuch feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with otherembodiments whether or not explicitly described.

In the several figures, like reference numerals may be used for likeelements having like functions even in different drawings. Theembodiments described, and their detailed construction and elements, aremerely provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of theinvention. Thus, it is apparent that the present invention can becarried out in a variety of ways, and does not require any of thespecific features described herein. Also, well-known functions orconstructions are not described in detail since they would obscure theinvention with unnecessary detail. Any signal arrows in thedrawings/figures should be considered only as exemplary, and notlimiting, unless otherwise specifically noted.

The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is mademerely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of theinvention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by theappended claims.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. maybe used herein to describe various elements, these elements should notbe limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish oneelement from another. For example, a first element could be termed asecond element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a firstelement, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. Asused herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of oneor more of the associated listed items. As used herein, the singularforms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms aswell, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, thefunctions/acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures.For example, two figures shown in succession may in fact be executedsubstantially concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

In general, the word “instructions,” as used herein, refers to logicembodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software units,possibly having entry and exit points, written in a programminglanguage, such as, but not limited to, SWIFT, Objective C, Java, Lua, C,C++, or C#. A software unit may be compiled and linked into anexecutable program, installed in a dynamic link library, or may bewritten in an interpreted programming language such as, but not limitedto, BASIC, Perl, or Python. It will be appreciated that software unitsmay be callable from other units or from themselves, and/or may beinvoked in response to detected events or interrupts. Software unitsconfigured for execution on computing devices by their hardwareprocessor(s) may be provided on a computer readable medium, such as acompact disc, digital video disc, flash drive, magnetic disc, or anyother tangible medium, or as a digital download (and may be originallystored in a compressed or installable format that requires installation,decompression or decryption prior to execution). Such software code maybe stored, partially or fully, on a memory device of the executingcomputing device, for execution by the computing device. Softwareinstructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will befurther appreciated that hardware modules may be comprised of connectedlogic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may be comprised ofprogrammable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors.Generally, the instructions described herein refer to logical modulesthat may be combined with other modules or divided into sub-modulesdespite their physical organization or storage.

In this disclosure, references are made to users (recipients,relationship users, administrators and responders) and to their clientcomputing devices/platforms. In general, the users and their computingdevices are conceptually interchangeable—a message from a user is sentby the user, using the user's computing device, and the message may beconsidered to have been sent by the computing device, by the user, orboth. Similarly, a user's location may be considered the same as thelocation of their computing device, since a user operating theircomputing device will be in the same location as the computing device.In some instances, the computing device carries out some action withoutany input from the user, such as displaying a message, however for thesake of convenience this action may be attributed to the user (e.g. inFIGS. 3-9) as the computing device is serving as the user's proxy. Someactions may be automated to a greater or lesser extent, according toalgorithms and/or preset user preferences, such as responding to a chatmessage (e.g. there may be an automated “do not disturb” or “away”message returned). Therefore, it is to be understood that where anaction is shown or described as being performed by a user, in variousimplementations and/or circumstances the action may be performedentirely by the user's computing device or by the user, using theircomputing device to a greater or lesser extent (e.g. a user may type outa response, or may choose form preselected responses generated by thecomputing device). Similarly where an action is shown or described asbeing carried out by a computing device, the action may be performedautonomously by that computing device or with more or less user input,in various circumstances and implementations.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computingenvironment 100, in accordance with one or more implementations of thepresent invention. One embodiment of the invention is implemented as aprogram product for use with a computer system such as, for example, thecomputing environment 100 shown in FIG. 1 and described below. Theprogram(s) of the program product defines functions of the embodiments(including the methods described herein) and can be contained on avariety of signal-bearing media. Illustrative signal-bearing mediainclude, but are not limited to: (i) information permanently stored onnon-writable storage media (e.g., read-only memory devices within acomputer such as CD-ROM disks readable by a CD-ROM drive); (ii)alterable information stored on writable storage media (e.g., floppydisks within a diskette drive or hard-disk drive, solid state storagedevices); and (iii) information conveyed to a computer by acommunications medium, such as through a computer or telephone network,including wireless communications.

The latter embodiment specifically includes information downloaded fromthe Internet and/or other networks. Such signal-bearing media, whencarrying computer-readable instructions that direct the functions of thepresent invention, represent embodiments of the present invention. Ingeneral, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of theinvention, may be part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, module, object, or sequence of instructions. Thecomputer program of the present invention typically is comprised of amultitude of instructions that will be translated by the native computerinto a machine-readable format and hence executable instructions. Also,programs are comprised of variables and data structures that eitherreside locally to the program or are found in memory or on storagedevices.

In addition, various programs described hereinafter may be identifiedbased upon the application for which they are implemented in one or morespecific embodiments of the invention. However, it should be appreciatedthat any particular program nomenclature that follows is used merely forconvenience, and thus the invention should not be limited to use solelyin any specific application identified and/or implied by suchnomenclature. In this regard, references to particular definitionallanguages, such as HTML and XML, are illustrative in nature and do notserve to limit the claims. It is broadly contemplated that the inventionis applicable regardless of the particular schema and/or language usedto define network resource content.

Turning now to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustrating an exemplarycomputing environment 100, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention, is shown. In general, the computing environment 100includes a client (e.g., a user's) computing device 102, and a servercomputer 104. The client computer 102 and the server computer 104 may becomponents of the same computer system or may be connected via a network106, such as the Internet.

As shown, the client computer 102 includes a central processing unit(CPU) 108 connected to a memory 110, a storage device 112, and a networkinterface 114 via a bus 116. The CPU 108 is included to berepresentative of a single CPU, multiple CPUs, a single CPU havingmultiple processing cores, and the like. The storage device 112 storesapplication programs and data for use by the client computer 102.Examples of the storage device 112 include one or more hard-disk drives,flash memory devices, optical media and the like.

The client computer 102 may be connected to the data communicationsnetwork 106 (e.g., a local area network, which itself may be connectedto other networks such as the internet) using the network interface 114.The memory 110 can be one or a combination of memory devices, includingrandom access memory, nonvolatile or backup memory (e.g., programmableor flash memories, read-only memories, etc.). Illustratively, the memory110 of client computer 102 stores an operating system 118 used to managehardware and software executing on the client computer 102. As shown,memory 110 also includes a browser program 120 which, when executed byCPU 108, provides support for navigating between various servers andlocating network addresses at one or more of servers (e.g., servercomputer 104). Memory 110 may also include an app 138, which may includethe programming units 224, 226, 228, 230, 232 shown in FIG. 2 anddescribed below, and have some or all of the functionality attributed tothe recipients 304, relationship users 306, and/oradministrators/responders 308 in FIGS. 3-9.

The client computer 102 may be connected to one or more display units122, input devices 124, output devices 126 and peripheral devices 128.The display units 122 may be internal or external monitors, televisionscreens, handheld device displays, and the like. The input devices 124may be any one of a keyboard, mouse, track-ball, stylus, mouse pad,mouse button, joystick, scanner or the like. The output devices 126 maybe any one of a monitor, printer, plotter, copier or other outputdevice. The peripheral devices 128 may be any other device which can becoupled to a computer: a CD/DVD drive capable of reading and/or writingto physical digital media, a USB device, Zip Drive, external floppydrive, external hard drive, phone and/or broadband modem,router/gateway, access point and/or the like.

Similar to the client computer 102, the server computer 104 may includea CPU 130, a memory 132, a network interface device 134, and a storagedevice 136, coupled via a bus 138. The memory 132 may be a random accessmemory sufficiently large to hold the necessary programming and datastructures that are located on the server computer 104. As shown, thememory 132 stores an operating system 140 used to manage server hardwareand software executing on the server computer 102. Illustratively, thememory 132 also includes a hypertext transfer protocol (http) server 144configured to service requests from the client computer 102. Forexample, the http server 144 may respond to requests for access toelectronic resources (e.g., HTML documents, network information, and thelike) residing on the server computer 104. However, one of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that the http server 144 is merelyillustrative and embodiments of the invention may be adapted to supportboth known and unknown protocols.

The programming and data structures of the http server 144 may beaccessed and executed by the CPU 130 as needed during operation. Theserver computer 104 may connect to the network 106 using the networkinterface device 134 (e.g., an analog modem, a wired network card, or awireless network device).

In one embodiment, users may interact with the server computer 104 usinga graphical user interface (GUI). In a particular embodiment, GUIcontent may comprise HTML documents (i.e., web pages) rendered on thedisplay unit 122 coupled with the client computer 102 using the browser120. In one embodiment, the web pages may include pages that allow auser to download a software application (app) for emergency awarenessand management, and/or to register for an account with the app. The webpages may also include pages that allow a user registered for an accountto log in and have some of the functionality offered by the app

The memory 132 may further include an app back-end 138. The app backend138 may comprise a software application configured to provide theability (e.g., via the GUI) to carry out some or all of thefunctionality attributed to the server(s) 302 in FIGS. 3-9 and mayinclude some or all of the programming units 208, 210, 212, 214, 216,218, 220 shown in FIG. 2 and described below.

Accordingly, the server computer 104 may be coupled to a plurality ofdatabases 1481, 1482 which may include a relational database 148 ₁ thatis queried using an SQL query, or an XML database 148 ₂ queried using anXML query. The invention, however, is not limited to any particularphysical database storage mechanism and may readily be extended tooperate on other such mechanisms, whether currently known or unknown.While the databases 148 ₁, 148 ₂ are illustrated as being external tothe server system, it is noted that the databases 148 ₁, 148 ₂ may existon a local storage device (e.g., storage device 136) of the servercomputer 104, or may be accessed over the network 106. Databases 148 ₁,148 ₂ may include, for example, linked organizational data, user accountinformation, and user/client response and location information.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system 200 programmed to manage organizationalemergencies, in accordance with one or more implementations. In someimplementations, system 200 may include one or more servers 202. Theserver(s) 202 may be configured to communicate with one or more clientcomputing platforms 204 according to a client/server architecture. Theusers may access system 200 via client computing platforms 204, forinstance, to carry out monetary transactions. Client computing platformsmay correspond with computing devices of recipients 204, relationshipusers 206, and/or administrators and responders 208 as shown in FIGS.3-9 and described below. It is to be understood that in someimplementations, different types of users have access to differentfunctionality (e.g., computer program units) based on their logincredentials, while in other implementations there are distinct functionsavailable to each type of user and the app installed by that type ofuser only has the functionality (e.g. computer program units)appropriate for that type of user.

The server(s) 202 may be configured to execute one or more computerprogram units. The computer program units may include one or more of anaccount unit 208, a communication unit 210, a mapping unit 212, astatistics unit 214, a social media function override unit 216, a socialmedia unit 218, a directory unit 220, and/or other units. As noted, theclient computing platforms 204 may include one or more computer programunits that are the same as or similar to the computer program units ofthe server(s) 202, and vice versa.

The account unit 208 may be programmed to carry out the serverfunctionality shown in FIG. 3—receive requests to open new accounts,verify and establish the accounts (e.g. steps 312, 316, 320, 324), aswell as routine account maintenance.

The communication unit 210 may be programmed to send and receivecommunications between the server(s) 202/302 and the client computingdevices 204 (304, 306, 308), e.g. carry out the broadcasts, queries,etc., for example as shown as part of steps 412, 416, 420, 424, 428,510, 516, 522, 612, 622, 628, 716, 812, 822, 912, and 926 of FIGS. 3-9.

The mapping unit 212 may be programmed to carry out the mappingfunctionality attributed to the server(s) 302 for example in FIG. 4 atstep 416 and FIG. 5 at step 522.

The statistics unit 214 may be programmed to carry out the statisticalfunctionality attributed to the server(s) 302 for example in FIG. 5 atsteps 510 and 522.

The social media function override unit 216 may be programmed to carryout the social media function override functionality attributed to theserver(s) 302 for example in FIG. 6 at steps 622 and 628.

The social media unit 218 may be programmed to carry out the socialmedia functionality attributed to the server(s) 302 for example in FIG.9 at steps 912, 926, 934.

The directory unit 220 may be programmed to carry out the directoryfunctionality attributed to the server(s) 302 for example in FIG. 8 atstep 812.

In implementations, client computing platforms 204 (and 304, 306, 308)may have one or more corresponding computer program units to those ofserver(s) 202 in order to implement the corresponding client-side (304,306, 308) functionality shown in the figures.

In some implementations, server(s) 202 and/or client computing platforms204 may be operatively linked via one or more electronic communicationlinks. For example, such electronic communication links may beestablished, at least in part, via a network such as the Internet and/orother networks. It will be appreciated that this is not intended to belimiting, and that the scope of this disclosure includes implementationsin which server(s) 202 and client computing platforms 204 may beoperatively linked via some other communication media.

A given client computing platform 204 may include one or more processorsconfigured to execute computer program units. The computer program unitsmay be configured to enable an expert or user associated with the givenclient computing platform 204 to interface with system 200, and/orprovide other functionality attributed herein to client computingplatforms 204 (and 304, 306, 308 in FIG. 3). By way of non-limitingexample, the given client computing platform 204 may include one or moreof a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, anetbook, a smartphone, a gaming console, and/or other computingplatforms.

The client computing platform 204 computer program units may include oneor more of a display unit 224, a communication unit 226, a directoryunit 228, an alert unit 230, and a chat unit 232, and/or other units. Asnoted, the client computing platforms 204 may include one or morecomputer program units that are the same as or similar to the computerprogram units of the server(s) 202, and vice versa.

The display unit 224 may be programmed to carry out the displayfunctionality attributed to client (304, 306, 308) computing devices asshown in FIGS. 3-9, for example in FIG. 4 at steps 414, 418, 422, 426,and 430, in FIG. 5 at steps 512, 518, and 524, in FIG. 6 at steps 614,624, in FIG. 7 at steps 710 and 718, in FIG. 8 at steps 814, 818, and824, in FIG. 9 at steps 914, 916, 918, 928, 930, 932, 936, 938, 940,etc.

The communication unit 226 may be programmed to carry out the sendingand receiving of requests, messages, responses, and other communicationsbetween the client computing devices 204 (304, 306, 308 in FIGS. 3-9)and server(s) 202 (302 in FIGS. 3-9). For example, communication unit226 may implement, at least in part, communications that are part ofsteps 310, 314, 318, 322, 410, 414, 418, 422, 426, 430, 512, 514, 518,520, 524, 610, 614, 616, 618, 620, 624, 626, 630, 710, 714, 718, 810,814, 820, 824, 914, 916, 918, 920, 922, 924, 928, 930, 932 in FIGS. 3-9.

The directory unit 228 may be programmed to carry out the directoryfunctionality attributed to the client(s) 304, 306, 308 for example inFIG. 8 at steps 810, 814, 816, 818, 820.

The alert unit 230 may be programmed to carry out alert sendingfunctionality attributed to the administrators/responders 308 forexample in FIG. 4 at step 410, and in FIG. 6 at steps 610, 620, and 626.

The chat unit 232 may be programmed to carry out the chat functionalityattributed to the clients 304, 306, 308 for example in FIG. 6 at steps616 and 618.

In implementations, server(s) 202 (and 302) may have one or morecorresponding computer program units to those of client computingplatforms 204 in order to implement the corresponding server-side (302)functionality shown in the figures.

The server(s) 202 may include electronic storage 218, one or moreprocessor(s) 220, and/or other components. The server(s) 202 may includecommunication lines, or ports to enable the exchange of information witha network and/or other computing platforms. Illustration of server(s)202 in FIG. 3 is not intended to be limiting. The server(s)202 mayinclude a plurality of hardware, software, and/or firmware componentsoperating together to provide the functionality attributed herein toserver(s) 202. For example, server(s) 202 may be implemented by a cloudof computing platforms operating together as server(s) 202.

Electronic storage 218 may comprise electronic storage media thatelectronically stores information. The electronic storage media ofelectronic storage 218 may include one or both of system storage that isprovided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) with server(s)202 and/or removable storage that is removably connectable to server(s)202 via, for example, a port (e.g., a USB port, a firewire port, etc.)or a drive (e.g., a disk drive, etc.). Electronic storage 218 mayinclude one or more of optically readable storage media (e.g., opticaldisks, etc.), magnetically readable storage media (e.g., magnetic tape,magnetic hard drive, floppy drive, etc.), electrical charge-basedstorage media (e.g., EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-state storage media(e.g., flash drive, etc.), and/or other electronically readable storagemedia. The electronic storage 218 may include one or more virtualstorage resources (e.g., cloud storage, a virtual private network,and/or other virtual storage resources). Electronic storage 218 maystore software algorithms, information determined by processor(s) 220,information received from server(s) 202, information received fromclient computing platforms 204, and/or other information that enablesserver(s) 202 to function as described herein.

Processor(s) 206 is configured to provide information processingcapabilities in server(s) 202. As such, processor(s) 206 may include oneor more of a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuitdesigned to process information, an analog circuit designed to processinformation, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronicallyprocessing information. Although processor(s) 206 is shown in FIG. 2 asa single entity, this is for illustrative purposes only. In someimplementations, processor(s) 206 may include a plurality of processingunits. These processing units may be physically located within the samedevice, or processor(s) 206 may represent processing functionality of aplurality of devices operating in coordination. The processor(s) 206 maybe configured to execute units 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, and/orother units. The processor(s) 206 may be configured to execute units208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, and/or other units by software;hardware; firmware; some combination of software, hardware, and/orfirmware; and/or other mechanisms for configuring processingcapabilities on processor(s) 206. As used herein, the term “unit” mayrefer to any component or set of components that perform thefunctionality attributed to the unit. This may include one or morephysical processors during execution of processor readable instructions,the processor readable instructions, circuitry, hardware, storage media,or any other components. Units may include, by way of example,components, such as software components, object-oriented softwarecomponents, class components and task components, processes, functions,attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers,firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures,tables, arrays, and variables.

As noted, in certain implementations, a given client computing platform204 may include one or more computer program units that are the same asor similar to the computer program units of the server(s) 202. The givenclient computing platform 204 may include one or more processors 222that are the same or similar to processor(s) 206 of the server(s) 202 toexecute such computer program modules of the given client computingplatform 204.

It should be appreciated that although units 208, 210, 212, 214, 216,218, and 220 are illustrated in FIG. 2 as being co-located within asingle processing unit, in implementations in which processor(s) 206includes multiple processing units, one or more of units 208, 210, 212,214, 216, 218, and/or 220 may be located remotely from the other units.The description of the functionality provided by the different units208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, and/or 220 described below is forillustrative purposes, and is not intended to be limiting, as any ofunits 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, and/or 220 may provide more or lessfunctionality than is described. For example, one or more of units 208,210, 212, 214, 216, 218, and/or 220 may be eliminated, and some or allof its functionality may be provided by other ones of units 208, 210,212, 214, 216, 218, and/or 220. As another example, processor(s) 206 maybe configured to execute one or more additional units that may performsome or all of the functionality attributed below to one of units 208,210, 212, 214, 216, 218, and/or 220.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating account actions associated with anorganizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention. An organizationaladministrator 308 may send a request 310 using a computing device tocreate an organizational account in the system to server(s) 302, whichmay in response establish an organizational account accordingly withinformation associated with the organization. As part of the request310, the administrator 308 may link to an organizational data repositorycomprising identity information regarding members of the organization,which the sever(s) 302 may associate with the established organizationalaccount. For example, a university administrator may create an accountfor the university and associate it with a database of students andemployees of the university. A university police department and auniversity fire department may also create accounts for themselves sothat they can broadcast emergencies and better respond to emergencies asthey develop. Some manual or automated verification process may be usedto ensure that the organizations and associated emergency responders arelegitimate.

In implementations, administrators and emergency responders associatedwith organizational accounts may install applications and/or accesswebsites different from those installed and/or accessed by recipient andrelationship users, in order to utilize all the functions available toorganizational accounts, such as broadcasting emergency alerts,requesting and viewing the status and location of organization members,etc. In other implementations, administrators and emergency respondersassociated with organizational accounts may install the sameapplications and access the same websites as other users, however theirlogin information gives them access to additional functionality that isnot available to those other users.

Unregistered computing devices transmit requests 314 to register asrecipient computing devices associated with recipient users 304, therequests including associated identity information, and server(s) 302check 316 the identity information associated with the requests againstthe identity information in the organizational data repository regardingthe members of the organization, and approve the requests where a matchis found. Recipients may be members of an organization, such as auniversity or a corporation, who are to receive emergency broadcastsfrom administrators of the organization and/or emergency responders, butdo not initiate them. For example, a university student may go to awebsite or download an app, and request to create a recipient accountassociated with their university, which has an organizational account.As part of the sign-up process, the student may indicate their name,address, class year, and/or other identifying information, which may bechecked against the database supplied by the university administrator.When a match between the input information and the database informationis found, the student is accepted and a recipient account is created forthem. Similar to administrative users, depending on the implementationrecipient users may install a separate app and/or visit a separatewebsite/webpage from administrative users, or may use the same app andwebsite but be allocated functionality based on their login credentialsidentifying them as recipients.

Computing devices associated with future relationship users 306 transmit314 requests to associate the computing devices with recipient computingdevices, and the server(s) 302 carries out or denies the receivedrequests by requesting verification 320 of the relationship from therecipients 304 with which an association is requested. Once therecipient users 304 involved verify 322 the relationship, the requestedrelationship accounts are established 324. For example, a parent of auniversity student may request a relationship account via an app orwebpage and input the name and/or other identifying information (emailaddress, etc.) for their child. A message may be sent (through the app,or e.g. by email) to the student/child asking them to verify that therequester is their parent and that they should be permitted to have arelationship account. The student confirms this, and a relationshipaccount is then opened for the parent, allowing them to accessrelationship user functionality. Relationship accounts may be associatedwith users who are not members of the organization, and accordingly maybe given less functionality than recipient users, for example they mayonly be able to view information relating to the recipient usersassociated with their account during emergency events, and have no otherfunctionality available to them. Similar to administrative users,depending on the implementation relationship users may install aseparate app and/or visit a separate website/webpage, or may use thesame app and website but be allocated functionality based on their logincredentials identifying them as relationship users.

Although in the implementation shown, persons desiring to berelationship users associated with one or more recipient users initiatethe account establishment, recipients may also request that new users beadded as relationship users associated with their accounts, in whichcase relationship status may be verified by the prospective relationshipaccount holder 306.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating organizational emergency managementmethods, in accordance with one or more implementations of the presentinvention. An emergency response system includes server(s) 302programmed, via executable code instructions, to broadcast 412 anemergency alert to recipient 304 computing devices, responsive toinstructions sent 410 from one or more administrative or respondercomputing devices 308. The broadcast emergency alert may includeinformation relating to an emergency and a response request that allowsrecipients 304, via their computing devices, to respond 414 to therequest with a binary positive or negative user status response. Thebinary OK/not OK response allows very fast and unambiguous responses—forexample touching one of two large buttons (OK and NOT OK) displayed onthe screen of the recipient's computing device. The recipient computingdevices receive the emergency alert, display the response request, suchthat the user thereof can provide a binary positive or negative userstatus response by a single actuation, and transmit location informationfor the respective computing device and any user status response 414back to the server 302. The recipient computing devices may alsovibrate, play a special ringtone or sound, and/or display graphicalelements when the emergency alert is received, to indicate anextraordinary nature of the emergency alert and increase the likelihoodof the recipient providing a response.

The emergency alert sent from the administrator/responder 308 may alsoinclude one or more selected modes of transmission and the broadcast 412may be in the selected modes, which may include one or more of email,SMS, and push notification.

The server(s) 302 receive 416 the user status responses from therecipient computing devices, and/or corresponding location information,e.g. through GPS, and send a map 416 showing known recipient computingdevice locations coded by corresponding response status of positive,negative, or no response received, to the administrator/respondercomputing devices.

For example, a university administrator may send an emergency alert thatan active shooter is on campus, last seen in a particular location. Theserver receives this alert and broadcasts it to all recipients—studentsand employees of the university. The alert is received via an app onrecipients' smartphones (or other devices) and is displayed, statingthat an active shooter is on campus, last known location X, with thewords “Are you OK?” with two large buttons, one red reading “NOT OK” andone green reading “OK”. Students see the message on their phones andpush OK or NOT OK, and the responses are sent to the server along withthe students' locations using GPS information from their phones. Somestudents do not see the alert or are unable to respond. After apredetermined period of time with no response, “no response” is sent tothe server along with those students' locations. The responseinformation is turned into a map for ease of visualization, which istransmitted to the administrators and first responders so they can seewhere students are okay and where they are not okay. OK recipients maybe color-coded green and NOT OK or nonresponsive recipients may be codedred and displayed on a map of the location where the emergency is takingplace. This map may be centered on a location provided in the emergencyalert and may extend for a predetermined radial distance around thatlocation, and administrator/responder users may zoom in and out on themap, pan, etc.

Server(s) 302 also broadcasts 420 an emergency alert to the relationshipcomputing devices. Depending on the implementation, this broadcast maybe the same as the broadcast to the recipients, and simply handleddifferently by the relationship user computing devices because they arerunning a different app or have different functionality available, ormay be a separate broadcast. This broadcast 420 includes the informationrelating to the emergency and information pertaining to one or morerecipients associated with the relationship users to which the broadcastis delivered, including the associated users' status response or lackthereof, location information, and/or contact information, and isreceived and displayed 422 by the relationship users' 306 computingdevices. For example, a college student may be a recipient user for auniversity and the student's parents may be relationship usersassociated with the student's account. If there is an emergency at theuniversity, the parents each receive an alert that there is an emergencyat the university along with an indication of where their child is andwhether he responded OK, not OK, or did not respond and a map indicatingtheir location, if known. The students phone, email, and/or othercontact information may be displayed along with this informationallowing the parents to attempt to contact the student through theapplication by phone, email, or app message, etc. Other students at theuniversity may be other recipient users, and those student's parents maybe relationship users associated with their respective children. Each ofthese other parents receive similar alerts, with the student informationpertaining to their own child with whom their accounts are associated.

Server(s) 302 send follow-up communications and/or queries 424 torecipients from which no status response and/or negative (e.g. “NOT OK”)status responses were received. These follow-up communications 424 maybe automatic/algorithm (for example, periodically after a predeterminedperiod of time has elapsed, to all such recipients or to a subset ofrecipients, for example within a given geographic area) and initiatedwithout input from administrators or others, or may be responsive toadministrator 308 instructions.

Recipients 304 receiving follow-up communications may respond 426. Forexample, five minutes after the original broadcast emergency alert, asecond communication may be sent to all users updating the alertmessage. Additional communication can be sent thereafter.

Server(s) 302 utilize received recipient location information toidentify positive status recipients 304 from which positive statusresponses were received (who responded, e.g. “OK”) who are locatedclosest to recipients from which no status response and/or negativestatus responses (e.g. “NOT OK”) were received and querying them 428 asto the status and/or location of those recipients. The recipients ofthis query receive and display them on their computing devices, and mayrespond to them 430. For example, it may be determined that one studentdid not respond to the status request and another student 20 feet awayresponded that he was “OK”. A query may then be sent to the student 20feet away who responded that he was “OK”, giving the non-respondingrecipient's name, picture, location, and/or other identifyinginformation, and asking “Is this person okay?”, and causing thisstudent's phone to display the same two buttons as before, “OK” and “NOTOK”. Using the chat function, a student may also be presented with theopportunity to provide some message, such as “that person is okay, butasleep.”

This operation, as with follow-ups, may be carried out entirelyautomatically/algorithmically, and/or with input from one or moreadministrators/responders. The administrator/responder may select asubset of recipients and to query the subset as to the status and/orlocation of one or more of the recipients from which no status responseand/or negative status responses were received. The subset might be, forexample, recipients who are not near the location where the emergency isbelieved to be, in order to get information on some non-responderswithout a likelihood of putting the queried recipients in danger.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating organizational emergency managementmethods, in accordance with one or more implementations of the presentinvention. The server(s) 302 here provide summary statistics 510 to theadministrators/responders, including number of recipient computingdevices located within a given predetermined geographical area and/ornumber of recipient computing devices located within the givenpredetermined geographical area that have associated a negative userstatus response or no user status response. Theadministrators/responders receive and display 512 these summarystatistics on their computing devices and can use them to manage theemergency. The predetermined geographical area may include a building, aproperty, a campus, an area including a building, property, and/orcampus and a certain surrounding area, and/or a given predeterminedradius around a point. For example, if the emergency is an activeshooter at a university as discussed above, and the shooter's locationis identified as inside a certain building, the server(s) 302 may,automatically using preset algorithms or preferences, or manuallyaccording to administrator/responder instructions, provide to theadministrators/responders the number of recipients known to be locatedwithin the building or within a 100 foot radius around it, as well asthe number of those recipients who have responded that they are NOT OKand who have not responded at all.

Administrators/responders may send additional information pertaining tothe emergency alert to the recipients or a selected subset thereof 514,the server(s) 302 may broadcast this additional information 516 to therecipients or the subset thereof, and the recipients of the additionalinformation will receive and display 518 the additional information ontheir smart phones or other computing devices. The selected subset maybe a subset of the recipients located within a specified geographic areaand/or having a given corresponding user status response (e.g. “NOT OK”,“OK”, no response). For example, administrators may send a message“Shooter spotted heading towards Murphy building” to all recipientswithin 100 feet of the Murphy building. Or, responders may send themessage “Stay where you are. Lock doors” to recipients in the samebuilding as the emergency who responded that they are OK.

Recipient locations may be sent 520 to the server(s) 302 periodically,for example in real-time or after a predetermined period of time such asevery five minutes. Recipients may also update their response at anytime, for example from OK to NOT OK or vice versa, and their computingdevice will send this updated response to the server(s) 302. A responseupdate may be accompanied by an updated location. The server(s) 302receive these updates, use them to update the map and summary statisticsand send the updated map and summary statistics 522 to theadministrators and emergency responders 308, which receive the updatesand display the updated map and statistics 524 on their computingdevices.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating social media function override andquery-less broadcast methods associated with an organizational emergencymanagement system, in accordance with one or more implementations of thepresent invention. An administrator/responder 308 may send an emergencyalert without a response request or query 610, for example by selectingto suppress the query function when sending the alert. The server(s) 302receive the emergency alert and broadcast it 612 to the recipients 304,the emergency alert including information relating to the emergency butwithout a response request. The alert is received and displayed 614 onthe recipients' computing devices. For example, an administrator of auniversity might send an emergency alert “Storm expected to arrive in 30minutes” and the student recipients would receive the alert on theirdevices but they would not be given an opportunity to report theirstatus (OK/NOT OK) since the storm had not yet arrived.

The recipients 304 may have access to chat functionality via theirprogrammed computing devices (e.g. smartphone app) allowing them toexchange chat message 616, 618 between one another. Recipients may alsohave access to social media functionality allowing them to exchangesocial media messages with one another, for example as described in FIG.9 and the accompanying text. When an administrator/responder sends anemergency alert 620, the alert may, automatically or at the option ofthe admin or responder, be broadcast 622 by server(s) 302 and the socialmedia functions may be overridden, stopping normal exchange of socialmedia messages and delivering the alert to the recipients 304,regardless of how the recipient computing devices are currently beingutilized. The recipient 304 computing devices receive and display 624the alert. When the emergency is over, an administrator or responder maysend 626 an indication that the emergency is over, and server(s) 302 mayreceive the indication and remove the override of the recipient socialmedia function 628, whereupon the recipients may exchange social mediamessages 630 using the chat functionality once more.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating organizational emergency managementmethods, in accordance with one or more implementations of the presentinvention. The summary statistics 510 from FIG. 5 may include a numberand/or percentage of recipients from which a response has been receivedand a list of recipients from whom a response has not been received. Theadministrative or responder may select one or more recipients from thelist on their computing device and in response their computing devicemay display further information regarding the selected recipients andallow the administrator/responder to initiate an email, chat message, orphone call directly to the selected recipient(s) 710. The selectedrecipients 712 would then receive the email, chat message or phone call712 from the administrator/responder.

The server(s) 302 may be further programmed via executable codeinstructions to receive a non-emergency message sent 714 from one of theadministrative or responder computing devices and broadcast it 716 tothe recipients' computing devices 304 by email, SMS, and/or applicationpush notification. The recipients receive 718 the non-emergency messagevia the selected method. For example, a university administrator maybroadcast a message via an app push notification reading “Tomorrow isschool spirit day.”

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating directory actions associated with anorganizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention. The administrative and/orresponder 308 computing devices are programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to request 810 from server(s) 302, retrieve and display814 a directory of the recipients, to sort 816 the directory by userstatus response, to display 818 information for individual computingdevices and/or users from the directory based on selections by theadministrator/responders, and to create temporary subsets of theresponders devices based on received selections and transmitcommunications 820 to all members of the temporary subsetssimultaneously. Server(s) 302 deliver 812 the requested directories tothe administrators or responders and receive the messages sent from theadministrators/responders and transmit them 822 to the subsets ofrecipients 304, which receive and display the messages 824 on theircomputing devices.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating social media functions associated withan organizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention. The server(s) 302 areprogrammed via executable code instructions to receive messages sent 910from the recipients 304 and broadcast the messages 912 to the recipients304, administrators and/or responders 308, and relationship users 306,and to receive responses from the recipients 304, administrators and/orresponders 308, and/or the relationship users 306 to the messages andbroadcast the responses 926 to the recipients 304, the administratorand/or responder computing devices 308, and the relationship users 306,and to link 934 two or more recipients 304, administrators and/orresponders 308, and/or relationship users 306, such that the linkedusers are sent the messages and the responses from each other moreprominently than the messages and the responses from others. Althoughrecipients 304 are shown as sending the first messages 910, messages inimplementations may originate from any user, whether recipient,administrator or responder 308, or relationship 306. Recipients,relationship users and administrators/responders 304, 306, 308 receivemessages 914, 916, 918 on their computing devices and send responses920, 922, 924, and receive each others' responses 928, 930, 932, andmessages and responses from linked users are displayed more prominentlyon their computing devices and are viewed 936, 938, 940.

For example, an application installed on the recipient 304, relationshipusers 306, and administrator and responder 308 computing devicesutilizes server(s) 302 to implement social media functionality, withusers 304, 306, 308 able to send messages that are displayed to some orall other users 304, 306, 308, respond to messages and responses sent byother users 304, 306, 308, and link to other users 304, 306, 308 as e.g.friends, connections, etc. Messages 910 may for example be “posts”within a tile, containing information which the recipient wishes toshare with other users. Responses 920, 922, 924 may for example beindications of approval of the received messages 914, 916, 918, such as“likes”, comments to the received messages 914, 916, 918, such as textstatements that appear with the received messages 914, 916, 918 whenviewed by others, or shares of the received messages 914, 916, 918,where the received messages are re-broadcast to ensure they are seen byusers linked to the person sharing them. Responses 920, 922, 924 mayinclude text, images, videos, and/or audio, which a user may upload fromtheir computing device. In an instance where admin/responder 308 issending messages 308, the sending of the messages may be prompted bycreation of a tile by the admin 308 as described in more detail withreference to FIG. 18. When creating the tile, the admin 308 maydesignate which users have access to the tile, and messages may be sent910 to those users, informing them of the new tile to which they haveaccess.

Extensive use data may be extracted from user activity. For example, thetypes of content—tiles, posts, etc., and formats, which are mostpopular, may be determined and used to suggest new tiles, to selectadvertisers on the system and sell advertisements, and the like.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a system architecture of anorganizational emergency management system, in accordance with one ormore implementations of the present invention. A secure cloudenvironment 1008 holds database 1004, server 1002 and server application1006, which communicate with administrative/responder users 1012 andrecipient/relationship users 1010.

FIG. 11 is a UI wireframe for a landing page view of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention. The wireframeshows placement of a logo 1102, user profile button 1104—pressing itwill show the current user's profile, App preferences button1106—Pressing it will present you with options to change the availableapp preferences that the user can change, the title of the tile 1108,search button 1110—pressing this button will allow you to search forusers that are part of the organization, client logo 1112, add tilebutton 1114—pressing this button presents you with a series of screensthat allows you to create a new tile, alert button 1116—pressing thisbutton will present you with a pop-up window to create an alert, buttonis only visible to admins, and graphic image of the tile 1118. A tile isa way to create and organize topics for discussion and may be part ofthe social media/social networking functionality. A tile may representboth front-end and back-end structure. On the front end, topics may bedisplayed on a user's screen as tiles, which a user may click to viewposts within that topic. On the back end, posts and associatedinformation may be organized by the tile and topic they correspond to.Creating tiles may be restricted to admins, and access rights of otherusers to specific tiles may be set and managed by admins.

FIG. 12 is a UI wireframe for a first level posts view of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention. The wireframeshows placement of the name of the person that created the post 1202, abutton that takes you back to the main tile view 1204, the profilepicture of the person that created the post 1206, date and Time stamp ofwhen the post was created 1208, area that shows additional posts underthe tile that was selected 1210, button that refreshes the list of postsunder the selected tile 1212, button that allows the user to begin thecreation of a new post under the selected tile 1214, and comments/likecounter 1218—the amount of comments and likes for the particular post.Clicking anywhere on the list post 1216 will take you to the details ofthe post.

FIG. 13 is a UI wireframe for a second level posts view of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention. The wireframeshows placement of the name of the person that created the post 1302, alogo image 1304, a done button 1306 that closes the post view, theprofile picture of the person that created the post 1308, a photo orvideo that was posted 1310 (Optional), a like button 1312—if a userpresses the button, the like is incremented by one and graphic turnsorange, a comment button 1314—if pressed, the user is presented with aview that allows him/her to type in a comment about the post, a clientLogo graphic 1316, and a share button 1318—if pressed, the user ispresented with a view that allows him/her to select user(s) to share thepost with.

FIG. 14A is a UI wireframe for an admin side alert screen of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention. The wireframeshows a display screen, here bearing logos 1402, 1403, that allows theadmin to create the alert, the title of the alert (Emergency) 1404, thealert message 1406, set an alert notification type 1408—here push, textor email, request an alert notification response request 1410—and sendthe alert with send button 1414 to everyone in the organization.Keyboard pop-up 1416 allows the admin to type in the alert title andmessage.

FIG. 14B is a UI wireframe for an admin side alert in progress screen ofa mobile application for organizational emergency management, inaccordance with one or more implementations of the present invention.The wireframe shows a display screen, here bearing logos 1402, 1403,that allows the admin to manage an alert in progress and view responses.Response view bar 1450 displays the number of OK responses, NOT OKresponses, total responses, and a pie chart to visually illustrate theproportion of respondents who responded OK/NOT OK. Alert icon 1452 showsthat an alert is in progress, alert message/instructions field 1454shows the latest alert message/instructions, and alert message timestamp1456 provides the time that message was sent. Dismiss alert option 1458allows the admin user to end the alert. Chat option 1460 allows theadmin user to chat with members of the organization. Send update option1462 allows the admin user to send another message to the organizationmembers relating to the alert.

FIG. 15 is a UI wireframe for a recipient side alert screen of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention. The wireframeshows placement of a logo 1502, an alert icon 1504 signifying an alertmessage, a circular button 1506 that says “OK”—pressing this buttonsignifies that the user is OK during the emergency, a client logo 1508,the timestamp 1510 of when the alert was created, the message 1512 ofthe alert, and a circular button 1514 that says “Not OK”—pressing thisbutton signifies that the user is NOT OK during the emergency.

FIG. 16 is a user functionality table 1600 for a system fororganizational emergency management, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention, showing what functionality isavailable for different types of users. In these embodiments, there arethree types of accounts, super admins, client admins, and users. Superadmins are the only type of account that can create a neworganization—all other functionality is available to both super adminsand client admins, except for status selection (e.g. OK/NOT OK) inemergency/alert events, which is reserved for users. User functionalityis limited to posting, commenting, sharing, and liking social mediafunctions, communicating during alerts/emergencies, and selecting status(e.g. OK/NOT OK) during alerts/emergencies. Super admins and clientadmins can also set up organizations, manage users, manage tiles (setusers with access to each tile, etc.), manage alerts, view reports onuser status, locate users, and end alerts. In these embodiments, each ofthese steps may be the same as or similar to analogous steps discussedwith regard to other figures.

FIG. 17 shows a create alert web page of an organizational emergencymanagement web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. A table of the Alerts 1704 isshown. Clicking on an Alert within the title column brings the title ofthe selected alert 1708 and a table of Alert postings 1706. To viewdetails of an Alert, click on an alert and that opens a window todisplay a new page. Box 1710 includes a pie chart graphic showingproportions of users who are OK, Not OK, or did not respond, and a sendupdate button for sending updates to selected groups of recipients.Dismiss Alert button 1714 lets an admin/responder dismiss an alert. Alist 1712 shows users and their statuses and contact information. Createalert button 702 allows the user to create a new alert.

FIG. 18 shows a create a tile web page of an organizational emergencymanagement web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. A tile is a way to create andorganize topics for discussion and may be part of the socialmedia/social media functionality. Tiles can be created by users such asan Administrator or Manager with permission to create tiles. Tiles canbe viewed by users with permission, which may be set by the creator of atile. To Create a Tile, a user clicks on button 1802 located above theView Pages Table 1804. There is then a Tile Title field to insert atitle, a Text field to insert text, a button to select a picture from acomputer file, and a button to save the tile. A Delete Tile function hasa confirm dialogue box. To edit a Tile, a user may click on an editbutton which gives the following functions: Icon to Tile Page and Iconto Delete Page, Change Title field, Change text field, Change picture,and Button to save Tile. To View Posts a new screen may be displayedthat lists all current Posts in a table format associated with the Tile.

FIG. 19 shows a create a post web page of an organizational emergencymanagement web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. A Post is a way for users tocreate content that can include text, images and videos for discussion,and may be part of the disclosed social networking/social mediafunctionality. Posts can be viewed by users with permission, which maybe set by the creator. A Post is created and organized within a Tile.Posts can be created by users such as an Administrator or Manager withpermission to create posts. To create a Post, a user clicks on a button1902 located above the view Posts table 1906 to create post that opens apopup window which gives the following functions: Text field to inserttext, Button to select picture from computer, Button to save Post. Whenthe Post is saved, it is associated with the parent Tile. To Edit Posts,a user clicks on a button to edit a post, which opens a window whichgives the following functions: Change Title field, Change text field,Change picture, Button to save. A user may click button 1904 to view allposts.

FIG. 20 shows an emergency chat function screen, in accordance with oneor more implementations of the present invention. Chat message inputfield 2002 allows the user to input a chat message and send it to otherusers. Sent chat message 2004 shows how the chat messages are displayedto users and identifier 2006 is displayed next to each message toquickly identify the user who sent the chat message.

FIG. 21 shows an admin side alert in progress screen of a mobileapplication for organizational emergency management, in accordance withone or more implementations of the present invention. A display screenbears logos 2102, 2103, that allows the admin to manage an alert inprogress and view responses. Alert ico 2140 identifies alerts inprogress, thumbs up icon 2142 shows the number of OK responses, thumbsdown icon 2144 shows the number of NOT OK responses, icon 2146 showstotal number of responses, and a pie chart 2148 visually illustrates theproportion of respondents who responded OK/NOT OK. Alert icon 2152 showsthat an alert is in progress, alert message/instructions field 2154shows the latest alert message/instructions, and alert message timestamp2156 provides the time that message was sent. Dismiss alert option 2158allows the admin user to end the alert. Chat option 2160 allows theadmin user to chat with members of the organization. Send update option2162 allows the admin user to send another message to the organizationmembers relating to the alert.

FIG. 22 shows a view mobile users web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. An admin may navigate to themobile user management selection 2202 on the top navigation bar andselect the view mobile users option 2204, causing a list of mobile users2206 to be displayed with information including name, contactinformation role/account type, activity, and edit/setting options. Gearicon 2208 leads to the page of FIG. 25.

FIG. 23 shows a create mobile users web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. An admin may navigate to themobile user management selection 2202 on the top navigation bar andselect create mobile user option 2304. Here, users may be added to theorganizational system manually by inputting information into fields 2306in a web form and selecting create user 2308.

FIG. 24 shows an import user list web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. An admin may navigate to themobile user management selection 2202 on the top navigation bar andselect import excel sheet 2404. From here, an admin user can selectchoose file 2406 to find a list of users to add automatically to theorganizational system. Such a list may for example contain informationpertaining to the users to be added that is the same as, similar to, orinclusive of the information filled into the fields in FIG. 23.

FIG. 25 shows a tile access management web page of an organizationalemergency management web application, in accordance with one or moreimplementations of the present invention. An admin may navigate to thisweb page by selecting a gear icon 2208 on the web page of FIG. 22. Here,information 2506 is displayed relating to the tiles to which thecorresponding user has access to. Tile assignments can be managed fromthis page.

In some embodiments, the invention may be implemented as an enterprisemobile app designed to deliver digital communications and provide foremergency communications, enabling organizations or communities to keepmembers connected and informed via mobile phones. Unlike traditionalemail, websites, or digital signage, the app combines these capabilitiesto deliver mass communication on a mobile platform, featuring anemergency communications platform that allows administrators/firstresponders to alert members to emergency conditions such as inclementweather, fire, public safety hazards or threats. The app is useful togovernments, corporations, colleges and universities and otherenterprises that need to provide mass communications. In the event of anemergency, organizations need the ability to quickly communicate what ishappening and determine everyone's status.

Using the app, the administrator can send alerts to members, pinpointtheir location using e.g. Google® Maps, and request their status. Adashboard displays how many people reported their status and who has notresponded. In addition, the administrator can contact members directlyvia email, phone or chat. The app provides unified communications fororganizations to help people connect, share ideas and do their jobsbetter.

In an implementation, after downloading the app, a user opens the appand is presented with two options: a) Member and b) Administrator, forthe user's selection. Based on the user's selection, the user ispresented with input fields that correspond to the selection the usermade. The user fills in the required information and presses a button toget validated. The user information is sent to the cloud, which crosschecks the user's data against the organization's data and, if theinformation is valid, the user is granted access to the rest of themobile app.

Once the user has been successfully validated, he/she is presented witha simple menu with the following choices: 1) Communicationfunctionality, 2) Tracking functionality, 3) Accountabilityfunctionality. For communication functionality, the user has the choiceof a) Emergency information and instructions—In the case of anemergency, a notification shows up alerting everyone that some type ofan emergency is in progress and also sending real time updates to allregistered users via push notifications, email and text message or b)Digital communication—Non-emergency news and announcements can be sentout via push notification. For tracking functionality, the user has thechoice of a) Live tracking (For families only) and Interactive map thatallows the family member where to locate their family member in theevent of an emergency. For accountability functionality, a) In the caseof an emergency, a notification shows up alerting everyone that sometype of an emergency is in progress. b) A member would be asked toverify that he/she is OK or not OK. c) A Family member would be shown asplit view. This screen would show a map and location of their familymember on the bottom and the status of their family member on the topand communication information. d) Administrators would be showndashboard of who has checked in and who has not checked in, with optionsfor i) Dashboard graphic of number of people status, ii) Directory viewof users, iii) Select individual users to view user profile—includingFirst name, Last name, Cell phone—An administrator can call, text orsend push notifications and geo locate, iv) Sort view by status (ok, notok, no response, all), and v) Configuration: Upload organization logo,etc. e) Social functionality includes i) Ability to link to othermembers and track, ii) Family members can search and send a request tolink to members, iii) Family members receiving the request can accept ordeny. f) Multiple alerts from multiple organizations—Parents may havemore than 1 student in different schools. G) Favorite—Ability foradministrator to search and favorite users. In an emergency, theadministrator may want to have a presorted list of users he/she wants tocommunicate with.

Each of the processes, methods, and algorithms described in thepreceding sections may be embodied in, and fully or partially automatedby, code instructions executed by one or more computer systems orcomputer processors comprising computer hardware. The processes andalgorithms may be implemented partially or wholly inapplication-specific circuitry.

Any process descriptions, elements, or units in the diagrams describedherein and/or depicted in the attached figures should be understood aspotentially representing units, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of the embodiments described herein in whichelements or functions may be deleted, executed out of order from thatshown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverseorder, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understoodby those skilled in the art.

The foregoing description details certain embodiments of the invention.It will be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed theforegoing appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways.As is also stated above, it should be noted that the use of particularterminology when describing certain features or aspects of the inventionshould not be taken to imply that the terminology is being re-definedherein to be restricted to including any specific characteristics of thefeatures or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated.

The invention is not limited to the particular embodiments illustratedin the drawings and described above in detail. Those skilled in the artwill recognize that other arrangements could be devised. The inventionencompasses every possible combination of the various features of eachembodiment or implementation disclosed. One or more of the elementsdescribed herein with respect to various embodiments can be implementedin a more separated or integrated manner than explicitly described, oreven removed or rendered as inoperable in certain cases, as is useful inaccordance with a particular application. While the invention has beendescribed with reference to specific illustrative embodiments,modifications and variations of the invention may be constructed withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims.

I claim:
 1. An emergency response system, comprising: a first set of oneor more computing devices programmed, via executable code instructions,to: broadcast a first emergency alert to a second set of one or morerecipient computing devices, responsive to instructions received fromone or more of a third set of administrative or responder computingdevices, the first emergency alert comprising information relating to anemergency and a response request, the response request permitting a userof each of the second set of one or more recipient computing devices toprovide a binary positive or negative user status response; receivebinary positive or negative user status responses from the second set ofrecipient computing devices, and/or location information correspondingto each of the second set of recipient computing devices; send follow-upcommunications and/or queries to users of the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received; utilize the received locationinformation to identify positive status users of the second set of oneor more recipient devices from which positive status responses werereceived who are located closest to users of the second set of one ormore recipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received and querying them as to thestatus and/or location of the users of the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices from which no status response and/ornegative status responses were received
 2. The system of claim 1,further comprising the second set of one or more recipient computingdevices, wherein each of the one or more recipient computing devices ofthe second set is programmed, via executable code instructions, to:receive the first emergency alert; display the response request,responsive to receiving the first emergency alert, such that the userthereof can provide a binary positive or negative user status responseby a single actuation; and transmit location information for therespective computing device and any user status response.
 3. The systemof claim 1, wherein the computing devices are further programmed, viaexecutable code instructions, to provide summary statistics includingnumber of recipient computing devices located within a givenpredetermined geographical area and/or number of recipient computingdevices located within the given predetermined geographical area thathave associated a negative user status response or no user statusresponse
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the predeterminedgeographical area comprises a building, a property, a campus, an areaincluding a building, property, and/or campus and a certain surroundingarea, and/or a given predetermined radius around a point.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the computing devices are further programmed, viaexecutable code instructions, to broadcast additional informationpertaining to the first emergency alert to the second set of one or morerecipient computing devices.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein thecomputing devices are further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive updates to the binary positive or negative userstatus responses from the second set of recipient computing devices,and/or updates to the location information corresponding to each of thesecond set of recipient computing devices.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein the computing devices are further programmed, via executablecode instructions, to receive a selected subset of the second set of oneor more recipient computing devices from a user of one of the third setof one or more administrator or responder computing devices and to querythe subset as to the status and/or location of one or more of the usersof the second set of one or more recipient computing devices from whichno status response and/or negative status responses were received. 8.The system of claim 1, wherein the computing devices are furtherprogrammed, via executable code instructions, to receive one or moreselected modes of transmission from a user of one of the third set ofone or more administrator or responder computing devices and tobroadcast the first emergency alert in the selected modes, the selectedmodes comprising one or more of email, SMS, and push notification. 9.The system of claim 1, wherein the responder computing devices arefurther programmed, via executable code instructions, to receive aninstruction to suppress the response request from a user of one of thethird set of one or more administrator or responder computing devicesand to broadcast a second emergency alert to the second set of one ormore recipient computing devices, the second emergency alert comprisinginformation relating to a second emergency and not comprising a responserequest.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the recipient computingdevices are further programmed, via executable code instructions, tovibrate, play a special ringtone or sound, and/or display graphicalelements when the first emergency alert is broadcast, to indicate anextraordinary nature of the first emergency alert.
 11. The system ofclaim 3, wherein the summary statistics include number and/or percentageof number of recipient computing devices from which a response has beenreceived and a list of recipient computing devices from which a responsehas not been received, wherein the administrative or responder computingdevices are further programmed, via executable code instructions, toreceive a selection of one or more recipient computing devices from thelist and display further information regarding the selected one or morerecipient computing devices and/or their users and to initiate an email,chat message, or phone call to the selected one or more recipientcomputing devices and/or their users.
 12. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising an organizational data repository comprising identityinformation regarding members of an organization, wherein the computingdevices are further programmed, via executable code instructions, toreceive requests from unregistered computing devices to register asrecipient computing devices associated with recipient users, therequests including associated identity information, and to check theidentity information associated with the requests against the identityinformation in the organizational data repository regarding the membersof the organization, and approving the request where a match is found.13. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing devices are furtherprogrammed, via executable code instructions, to receive a non-emergencymessage from one of the administrative or responder computing devicesand broadcast it to the recipient computing devices by email, SMS,and/or application push notification.
 14. The system of claim 1, whereinthe computing devices are further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to receive requests to associate new relationshipcomputing devices with the recipient computing devices, and to carry outor deny the received requests.
 15. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising the third set of one or more administrative or respondercomputing devices, wherein each of the one or more administrative orresponder computing devices of the third set is programmed, viaexecutable code instructions, to: retrieve and display a directory ofthe second set of recipient computing devices and/or their users, tosort the directory by user status response, to display information forindividual computing devices and/or users from the directory based onselections received from a user thereof, and to create temporary subsetsof the second set of recipient computing devices based on receivedselections and transmit communications to all members of the temporarysubsets simultaneously.
 16. The system of claim 1, wherein the computingdevices are further programmed, via executable code instructions,responsive to requests from the third set of administrative or respondercomputing devices, to transmit contact information corresponding toselected recipient computing devices to the requesting administrative orresponder computing devices.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein thecomputing devices are further programmed, via executable codeinstructions, to track content of messages passing between recipientcomputing devices and to determine types of content that are mostfrequently exchanged.
 18. Non-transitory computer storage comprisinginstructions for causing a first set of one or more computing devices todetermine, triage, follow-up and assist organizational members in anemergency by: broadcasting a first emergency alert to a second set ofone or more recipient computing devices, responsive to instructionsreceived from one or more of a third set of administrative or respondercomputing devices, the first emergency alert comprising informationrelating to an emergency and a response request, the response requestpermitting a user of each of the second set of one or more recipientcomputing devices to provide a binary positive or negative user statusresponse; receiving binary positive or negative user status responsesfrom the second set of recipient computing devices, and/or locationinformation corresponding to each of the second set of recipientcomputing devices; sending follow-up communications and/or queries tousers of the second set of one or more recipient computing devices fromwhich no status response and/or negative status responses were received;and utilizing the received location information to identify positivestatus users of the second set of one or more recipient devices fromwhich positive status responses were received who are located closest tousers of the second set of one or more recipient computing devices fromwhich no status response and/or negative status responses were receivedand querying them as to the status and/or location of the users of thesecond set of one or more recipient computing devices from which nostatus response and/or negative status responses were received.